24 tourneys later, I made $5 more today. I'm bushed. Some notes:

Some people play tourneys in sets, some play continuously. Playing in sets mean that you play a group until the last of the group is finished, eventually focusing on just one tournament. Playing continuously means that you open a new tourney every time you bust out of one.

I prefer to play in sets, personally. There's a longstanding debate about which is better. Playing continuously usually increases your hourly rate, because you are constantly playing the max number of tables you are comfortable playing at one time. However, the increased hourly is almost certainly at the expense of your ROI, because by playing in sets you can better focus on the later stages as you are down to fewer tables and make arguably better decisions. There's also an increased fatigue factor, IMO, that comes into play when you play continuously, although you get finished with your daily grind much more quickly.

Currently, I play sets of 6 tourneys. I fire up a group of 6, and then whenever I bust out of one, I'm down to 5, then 4, until I'm down to just one. The only exception is when I bust out very early in a tourney, then I'll fire up a replacement (or as many as I need to, if I'm in the first or second round and bust out of more than 1 because I'm running into a brick wall) Typically, a set of 6 takes between 35 and 45 minutes to complete. Obviously, the better the result, the longer it generally takes.

Tonight, I fired up 4 sets of 6, and it took me exactly 2 hours and 39 minutes to complete. Not bad at all. This morning, I played 34 tourneys (I forget exactly why I landed on that number - I think it's because I played semi-continuously for a while) in about 3 hours and 53 minutes. All in all, I played about 5 and half hours today, and a total of 58 tournaments. That's about 10 an hour. It seems as though I can probably play more than I originally figured in a day, maybe upwards of 40 tourneys in 4 hours. For now, I think I'm going to try to keep it around 36 average, just to take it easier on myself while I settle into the routine. I will fall behind schedule a bit, because on Friday and Saturday I ran a 50 tourney deficit due to other conflicts, and I was only able to make up 22 of those 50 that I missed today. I hope to make those back up as the week goes on, if I can find time.

My overall swing today was an interesting microcosm of poker psychology. I went way up this morning, having a mini-heater (won 3 of my first 6) that resulted in a instant $55 upswing. My confidence soared. I treaded water for the next 30 tourneys, telling myself the next heater was right around the corner. Then, I had a 14 tourney massive downswing where I couldn't avoid a 3-outter to save my life. It made me slightly question reality, mutter to myself, envision buying a gun and noose and strangling several virtual players. Nevertheless, I remained composed. Finally, I regained my original upswing with the recapitulation in my final 4 tourneys, finishing the day 2,1,1,2, to finish up $63 for the day.

A sidenote - It occurs to me that I have not explained the structure of the tourney I play. I play Turbo 6-max No Limit Hold Em tourneys. Turbo means they have a fast structure, so they take little time, compared to normal tourneys. The top 2 out of 6 people get paid. 1st gets 65%, 2nd gets 35%. You would think that if you get into the money at either first or second or both at a higher rate than 17-18% (1/6 is 16.666%, so you'd be "beating" the avg), you'd make a lot of money. Not true. The critical thing in this structure is how you play heads up. First place is worth almost twice second place's prize money. If you play well heads up, you do well. If you suck playing heads up, you will not win very much, if at all. If you're in between, you're in between.

So far heads up, at all the limits I've played at combined, I'm 156 in first and 135 in second. Not the dominating disparity I had hoped for initially, but hopefully it will widen. I had an amazing heads up record at non-turbo 30s back in 06, but it was only a 500 sample. It was something like 60%/40%.

Anyway, today's data.

Beginning 11/7 bankroll: $820
End 11/7 bankroll $883
Net: +$63
Net FPP earned/cash value: 478.5/$7.71
total FPP accrued/cash value: 3019.81/$48.70
Current Status (Multiplier): Silverstar (1.5)
Total tourneys played: 784
Average buyin: $6.33
Total amount invested: $4966.00
Total profit earned: $187.90
ROI: 3.78%